Hell yea, I use my MacBook as my Gaming PC and this will lower quite a lot of Boot Camp reboots. Now if only the Steam version of Aion would support Mac some day I would be really pleased.

Valve, I want your babies. And Gabe.

yes!

Why not linux? :(

Awesome, I've got a mac on the way, totally awesome timing Valve!
 
I love you guys, now EP3?

" Hell yea, I use my MacBook as my Gaming PC and this will lower quite a lot of Boot Camp reboots. Now if only the Steam version of Aion would support Mac some day I would be really pleased. "

This is great news. Im using Crossover right now to play Portal and Half Life 2. But having steam on the Mac will be ace. I don't even need to re-buy my games. Just hope they have enough 3rd party games coming to it.

" @MysteriousBob said:

"  the ability to play on Mac after buying a Windows version of the game.   Wait, so all Windows games on Steam will work on OS X?  "

No. Only if there's a mac version, and I'm guessing it'll be on a one-game basis depending on the developer/publisher. "

Daaaamn, that's cool 

A number of games on Steam have Mac versions already. As long as the publishers decide to make the Mac versions available, Steam should start with a decent lineup of Mac games.

FUCK YES!!!!!!!!

Valve is so crazy awesome. I'm not even a fan of Macs really, but this is great news.

Well it just hit me that probably the reason this didn't happen sooner, was Apple's reluctance to give game companies more freedom in putting games on the Mac unless Apple could have something for games like it does on the iPhone, where it controls what games get put out there.  Or like music and iTunes.  They probably wanted to have their own distribution service like Steam.  iGame?  But they figured it was not gonna happen, gamers are not the ones who buy up their music or games and bow down to their control.  Might as well let an established service come in and work with them because getting gaming to work well at all is probably what they should worry about.  Guess they finally got it.

sounds good.  I don't play on my PC anymore but I have steam games still.  Now I can play on my mac whenever I want.  Yippie!

So excited! It will start with the valve titles and then expand in to more quality titles.

i just want portal 

" @NickL: My understanding is that Xbox 360 development is easier for PC developers to make games for than the PlayStation 3, so PC developers are more likely to make games for that platform. The same thing happened with the original Xbox; PC games were more likely to be ported to the Xbox than to the PS2. "

Yawn, I don't care. I have a Mac but Still don't care. It is good for all the people that just have a Mac, but with a Mac I can't get a new CPU or GPU any time I want and that is why I have a PC. But really go Valve it always better for more people to game.

It's definitely a good way for Apple to break into another aspect of the gaming industry. They've had a great start in the portable market. With an easy plug-in to the casual market and a die-hard fan base, Apple could soon become a serious player. Sounds a little too familiar.

Wow, Valve REALLY doesn't like the PS3. I can't say I find it strange though. They where a PC only dev. for a long time and the 360 and PC achitecture is almost if not completly identical so its not a big leap.
Hopefully Sony can make a dev. friendly platform next time around, the PS2 was also a paint in the ass if I remember correctly but I guess when you have 120million+ concoles out there ppl are willing to learn to make games for it.

I'm kinda shocked that Apple is allowing this into their extremely closed ecosystem.  It's un-appley.
 
I'm also a bit concerned that it's going to drive up the prices of the PC titles to fork some extra cash over to Apple.  I can't fathom Apple allowing people to digitally download titles without taking some kind of kickback.

 If I may get "sensational" for moment, note that Valve considers the Mac to be "tier-1" but not the PlayStation 3. Burn?    

" @TheHBK: No one controls the release of Mac software. But Apple doesn't promote Mac gaming the same way Microsoft tries to promote Windows gaming. Games do get released for the Mac, but people don't pay much attention to them. With Steam coming to the Mac that could certainly change, but Apple is still doing absolutely nothing to help. "

Sounds awesome.

" I'm kinda shocked that Apple is allowing this into their extremely closed ecosystem.  It's un-appley.  I'm also a bit concerned that it's going to drive up the prices of the PC titles to fork some extra cash over to Apple.  I can't fathom Apple allowing people to digitally download titles without taking some kind of kickback. "

The one thing that irked me about moving to Mac is now being melted away by Valve. Fantastic!

But...how will they alt fire!?

Speaking as a Mac owner...
 

" @Manatassi: Architecture means nothing if you can't convince people to develop games for that architecture. Yes, people do it. But Windows is still seen as a much safer bet for PC game development.  If a developer is concerned about piracy, what they're really concerned about is profit. And profit is more likely to be had with Windows games. If a developer wants to take a risk and develop games for the Mac, great! I encourage more developers to do so. But when looking at profits, which is what most developers will do, Mac simply doesn't have the profit potential that Windows does. "

notice how they don't say anything about the back catalogue being mac supported

The Mac can play games now!?!
 
All it needs to fix is the price and Windows will have trouble.

" I'm not a huge Mac fan... but I respect the decision Valve is making to make their games available to the platform.   Now, why do they have so much bad blood towards the PS3? Did Sony do something? Valve pretty much said, "F that" and let EA port the Orange Box, and now they have publically stated how they hate the PS3 infrastructure and won't be developing for it. Did they even try? "

This is excellent news. :)

Valve is now my favorite company in the world :)

grats to the mac users, hope this is one step into making a lot of other programs usable on a mac and vice versa

" But...how will they alt fire!? "

" The Mac can play games now!?!  All it needs to fix is the price and Windows will have trouble. "

well done valve, now the two biggest players in pc gaming are day and day releasing their titles on mac and pc, and, speaking as a mac owner, i'm overjoyed. 
 
furthermore I really hope the larger publishers start to support the platform (ea et al), but i really cant see the mac really taking off as a gaming thing, especially when i think of the indie scene. 
 
now i'm off to upgrade my graphi........ oh.........and that as well

that is a burn. and its really lame. if anything valve should want to support the ps3 over the mac since valve has had their roots in MS ever since they started. and sony does business with MS(im typing this on a vaio lol) WTF? im not freaking out. its just a weird choice. but then again, i dont make millions on video games like valve does.

I AM SO FRIGGIN EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a Wii.

" @Jaconius: Ctrl + click obvs! faster than right clicking I hear. "